I Love My Pet Campaign

If you have been a die hard Home Central Owego shopper in the last 10+ years you may remember this loving face. If not, it was probably because he was sound asleep in the office dreaming of dropped pizza crusts or leftover Christmas cookies. Wyman had many loves, but food was definitely #1.

This February marks 2 years since Wyman passed away and it still seems like we ought to see his sleepy face peek around the corner each time we walk up to the office.

Let me give you a little background on Wyman. My Mom, Marcia Kropp, began raising Wyman as her second guide dog in training. Wyman was a great puppy, low-key, loving, good with people and pets, but he had a soft trachea which meant he would have difficulty wearing a harness while leading a disabled person. Eventually Wyman was released from the training program and my parents were offered the opportunity to keep Wyman as a pet.

Wyman became my Dad’s office companion at Home Central, but he had another long-standing job with my Mom. Wyman visited hundreds, probably thousands of preschoolers and elementary kids in Tioga County through a program called Puppy Pockets where my Mom utilized his loving demeanor to help kids learn about the dangers of drugs and alcohol. Wyman was also an integral part of another program called Puppy Pals. Wyman spent many years tolerating kids hugging, kissing and just plain loving him.

This year we wanted to come up with a way to honor Wyman, so we decided to have a Valentine’s campaign to gather supplies for local shelters. While Wyman was not a shelter dog, we have had many shelter dogs over the years and our staff has many well loved pets of their own.

As a tribute to Wyman and all of our pets, we are asking our friends and community members to support animals who are in need of a new home. There are so many animals in Broome and Tioga Counties who would love a new home with a forever family, please consider adopting a pet and certainly get your pets spayed and neutered to help stop the continual oversupply of unwanted animals.

If you can’t bring another animal into your home please consider donating supplies or funding to our local shelters. Below are the lists of supplies we are collecting. Please note we will be collecting the BC Humane Society donations at our Vestal location and the Stray Haven donations can be dropped off at our Owego and Candor locations by February 14th.